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The story of former WBF World
Super Cruiserweight Champion
Vinnie Curto is a very
noteworthy one, to say the
least. In many ways its a very
sad story, but its also a story
of a person who went through
hell, several times, and came
out on the other side to make
something of himself.
While the World Boxing
Federation (WBF) no longer
recognizes the Super
Cruiserweight division, Curto
certainly deserves to still be
recognized for his achievements,
not only during a twenty-four
year professional boxing career,
but also in life in general.
Unfortunately, this article will
be too short to do his story
full justice...at all.
Born on July 10 1955, Vincent
Joseph Curto grew up in East
Boston, Massachusetts. Both his
parents were homosexuals, and
only married each other “to
appease normal society
practices”, as Vinnie puts it.
And their relationship wasn’t
exactly a good foundation on
which to build a happy family.
Sadly, Vinnie´s father, Jimmy,
was a violent alcoholic, and
both physically and sexually
abused his son. And his mother
didn’t bother to do anything
about it. To make matters worse,
Jimmy also allowed his gay
friends to repeatedly molest
young Vinnie, and the overall
horrors of his childhood scarred
him for life.
But through the adversity,
turmoil and abuse, Vinnie proved
to be of a different breed. With
a father he describes as “a
monster”, he experienced things
that would totally destroy most
people, but ironically it was
that monster who got him into
boxing and paved the way for
what he describes as his first
love.
“My
father had this dream about me
being a champion, and he would
always tell whatever bartender
was available to listen, that
his son was going to be a
champion one day”, Curto
explains.
“One
time the bartender told him to
take me upstairs to the New
Garden Gym. There we were
climbing three flights of
stairs, and on each landing my
father took a swig of Seagram´s
Seven (whiskey) from a bottle he
had in his back pocket.”
“We
got to the fourth floor, in
front of a very large aluminum
sliding door that had a giant
racket going on behind it. We
open the door and there were two
black fellas boxing, three
Puerto Rican fighters hitting
heavy-bags, and a couple of
white fighters skipping rope. It
was a bee hive of activity.”
“My
father sat and passed out on a
rubdown table. I was so happy
(he passed out), because I
thought he was gonna put me in
with those black fellas. They
were hitting hard, fast and with
precision. When the bell rang to
end the round, the two black
fellas hugged each other and
kissed each other on the cheek.”
“People
at ringside gave compliments and
encouragement. A strong light
glowed within me. It was my
first experience with love. It
showed on my face, because one
of the black trainers, a guy
named Freddie Small, said: “Hey
kid! You want to do this?”
“I
said, “I would love to but I
have no money”. Freddie replied:
“Show up, and that’s payment
enough”.”
And show up Vinnie did. He
started training, and eventually
developed enough skills that
after less than twenty amateur
bouts he was courted by none
other than the legendary Angelo
Dundee. Trainer of Muhammad Ali
and Sugar Ray Leonard, Dundee
knew potential when he saw it,
and he saw it when watching
Curto win a tournament in
Florida.
Dundee started sending letters
to Vinnie, believing they could
do great things together and
asking the young man to join his
camp in Miami. When Curto left
the Navy in 1972, he took Dundee
up on his offer and went to
Florida to turn professional,
still only seventeen years old.
Vinnie made his paid debut as a
Middleweight on October 10,
1972, promoted by Angelo´s
brother Chris Dundee, at the
Auditorium in Miami Beach. He
stopped solid journeyman Victor
Taco Perez (7-10-1) in five
rounds, and before his
nineteenth birthday he had raced
to a 17-0 (7) record, and had
several ten rounders on his
resume.
Among his victims were
respectable foes such as Dennis
Riggs (34-16-2), Nat King
(17-4), Terry Daniels (31-10-1)
and Baby Boy Rolle (33-8-2), but
Curto was thrown in too deep
when he was matched in a
non-title fight with reigning
WBC World Middleweight Champion
Rodrigo Valdes (53-4-2) in
October of 1974.
But at only nineteen years of
age Curto handled himself quite
well against the much more
experienced, harder punching and
more technically sound
Colombian, showing true grit in
losing a ten-round unanimous
decision at the famed Madison
Square Garden in New York.
Having lost his unblemished
record, the Valdes fight was the
start of a two-year rough patch
in the boxing career of Vinnie
Curto. Not that it was ever
going to seriously discourage
him, but he only managed to win
three of his next eight outings,
between November 1974 and August
1976.
After beating Chucho Garcia
(95-33-6) in his first fight
back, he lost a decision to
undefeated Tony Licata (47-0-3)
in February of 1975, and only
got a draw in a fight that many
felt he won against “Bad” Bennie
Briscoe (50-14-1) at the
Spectrum in the perennial
contenders hometown of
Philadelphia.
“I
would have had to kill him to
win”, Vinnie told the Los
Angeles Times in a 1986
interview. “They´d give him a
draw from a stretcher...”.
In his very next fight he was
again wronged, in the opinion of
many, when he lost a razor-thin
(45-46, 45-46, 45-47) decision
over ten rounds to future WBC
and WBA World Champion Vito
Antuofermo (31-1-1) at the
Tropicana Hotel & Casino in Las
Vegas.
Six weeks later he drew with
John Pinney (27-2-2) back in
Miami, before starting 1976 with
two victories. In August of that
year he lost again, this time to
Gene Wells (35-10-2), but then
he finally got back in the swing
of things and went 23-1-1 in the
next three years, finally lining
up a rematch with Briscoe.
But before that, Curto was
banned from fighting in the US
after pulling out of a fight
with Marvin Hagler on short
notice. Curto says he was
approached by people connected
to the mafia, who wanted him to
lose the Hagler fight on
purpose.
The plan was then to convince
Hagler to lose the rematch on
purpose, and a rubber-match was
supposed to be a real fight.
Curto refused the proposition,
and went into hiding. As a
consequence of the, at the time,
unexplained withdrawal, all
boxing commissions across the US
suspended his license, and he
was forced to continue his
career in Canada, where he won
nine fights before his US
license was reinstated.
On December 15 1980, in his
original hometown of Boston,
Curto put the record straight as
he out-boxed Briscoe (64-20-5)
at the Hynes Auditorium to win a
clear, and well-deserved,
unanimous decision after ten
rounds. Looking back at the
fight, Vinnie recals:
“Briscoe
was by far my toughest opponent.
You couldn’t hurt him with a
bazooka, so my plan was to box
my ass of all night. And I did,
and won!” But, despite having
proved his worth, it would be
another three-and-a-half years
before Vinnie got at title-shot.
After the rematch with Briscoe,
Curto racked up another nine
victories to take his impressive
professional record to 53-5-3
(21), and was awarded with a
shot at the WBC Continental
Americas Light Heavyweight title
against the capable Mark Frazie
(27-4) in Miami on August 25,
1984.
Curto beat Frazie by
twelve-round decision, and
despite being a title-holder,
albeit of a minor championship,
at Light Heavyweight, he was
ranked highly by the
International Boxing Federation
(IBF) at Super Middleweight and
got his first crack at
world-glory the following year.
In June of 1985, Curto and his
team traveled all the way to
Seoul, South Korea to challenge
reigning IBF world champion
Chong-Pal Park (37-3-1), and,
according to Vinnie, everything
went according to plan. Except
for the decision of the judges:
“I
was the elite contender for the
title, but no one wanted to
promote the fight for me in the
United States, so I had to take
the shot (in South Korea). I
clearly out-pointed him, but
didn’t get the decision in his
hometown...”
The three judges scored the
fifteen-round fight in Park´s
favor by 144-142, 146-141 and
146-139. The last two cards
suggested a relatively clear win
for Park, but the controversy
was significant enough to
warrant a rematch, which was
eventually set for The Sports
Arena in Los Angeles in June of
1986.
With three victories in the
interim Curto entered the second
fight with Park confident that
in the USA he would not be
denied by the judges again, but
this time it would not go the
distance.
“No
excuses”, says Curto. “I was
ahead on two of the cards, but
was stopped in the fifteenth
round by Park. His name alone
gave me a black eye.” (Note:
according to BoxRec, Park was
ahead on all three cards).
The second defeat to Park
appeared to be the beginning of
the end of Curto as a top-level
fighter, and after two more
losses and a No-Contest his
career looked to be over in
1991. But three years later he
decided to make a comeback, as a
Cruiserweight.
Curto won four out of five
fights between November 1994 and
July 1996, with the loss being a
horribly unjust decision against
journeyman Ernie Valentine
(16-22-1) in Boise, Idaho in
July 1995. In September of 1996,
Curto got the opportunity to
fight for the WBF World Super
Cruiserweight title, and took it
with both hands.
41-year-old Vinnie defeated
Jimmy Haynes (8-3-1) for the
title, and finally achieved his
dream of becoming a world
champion. While the Super
Cruiserweight division (190 Lbs.
- 200 Lbs.) never really “caught
fire” and was short-lived, the
accomplishment means a lot to
Curto:
“For
the first time as a fighter I
got the respect I should have
gotten twenty years earlier”, he
says, and claims he was stripped
of the title without warning for
not defending it. Whatever the
case, this was the last fight of
Vinnie Curto´s career, and he
retired with a fine 62-10-3
(26), with one No-Contest,
record.
After the aforementioned Mark
Frazie fight in 1984, Vinnie was
approached by a spectator, who
turned out to be a producer of
the hit TV show Miami Vice,
starring Don Johnson. The
producer asked Vinnie to make an
appearance on the show. Vinnie
did so, playing the role of
bodyguard to the character of
Bruce Willis.
This was the start of a new
career for Vinnie, who has over
the years had several roles in
movies and TV shows. He has also
written several movie scripts,
one of which was his life story.
The movie about Curto was all
set to go into production some
years ago, starring Mark
Wallberg as Vinnie, Robert De
Niro as Angelo Dundee and Vinnie
himself playing the part of his
father. However, titled “Out on
my feet”, the film fell apart
when the main investor died.
Vinnie is still hoping that one
day it will somehow be made.
As mentioned earlier, this
article is not close to covering
the amazing life of Vinnie
Curto, and a movie should
certainly be made if there is
any justice in this world. A
book is reportedly in the works,
and can only be a very
interesting read, not only for
boxing fans.
Stories about his relationship
with Frank Sinatra and Sammy
“The Bull” Gravano, among
others, and how he was once
managed by Sylvester Stallone,
are bound to be entertaining.
For better or worse, Vinnie
Curto has lived a life that
deserves to be immortalized.
Married six times, he has seven
kids. “If you look up the word
divorce in the dictionary, you
will see a picture of me holding
up two signs”, Vinne says with a
laugh. “One that says “will work
for birth-control”, and the
other saying “Eating is a tough
habit to break.”
For more on the life and career
of Vinnie Curto, please visit
his website:
www.therealvinniecurto.com
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